| Jan 30 2008 |
Johnnie To's pickpocket movie, SPARROW (apparently there's no "The" in the title), is at the Berlin Film Festival and so Mr. To finds himself once again all over the Chinese media. Sina.com did a four-page interview with Hong Kong's King of Directors and a sharp-eyed reader graciously translatd and summarized the contents:
- it's well-known that To rarely works with a complete script, and his actors often don't seem to have a clue on set about what's going on (Josie Ho talks about this in a recent interview). Some notable exceptions are RUNNING OUT OF TIME and LINGER, his recent romantic bomb (read a bad review). In the Sina interview he says he wants to work with more complete scripts, as in LINGER, which had a script by Ivy Ho (COMRADES: ALMOST A LOVE STORY). Um, maybe not such a good idea. He also said he wants to be more of a "literature director" but that he thought his first attempt at this, ELECTION, was unsuccessful. I think "literature director" is a direct translation and I'm not quite sure what it means in reference to ELECTION.
- the Sina interviewer asked To if he'd seen Peter Chan's THE WARLORDS. To then began praising Chang Cheh's DYNASTY OF BLOOD and asked the interviewer if he'd seen it. Then he said that he would never direct a period martial arts movie unless it was really, really, really special. He also is completely uninterested in THE WATER MARGINS as a film project, and that the only part of that story he cares about is Gao Qiu.
- the interviewer challenged To's previous statements that he would stay in Hong Kong by pointing out that he'd been directing movies for Mainland companies recently like TRIANGLE and LINGER. To said that in order for his company to survive this is what he has to do. He said that he'd like to return to making more personal movies in ten years, then he re-stated that he still considers THROW DOWN his best movie (and I totally and completely agree - THROW DOWN is completely underrated).
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I'm glad to hear you like Throwdown too. I think it's an incredible movie, and I'm always surprised to hear how few people seem to like it. Maybe you really need to be familiar with To and his eccentricities to truly appreciate it - in any case, I'd rank it up there with the best HK films that were ever made.
I'm really curious as to what will happen with To in the next few years - the thought of him still making 2-3 films a year in 10 years' time is dizzying. But I like the idea....
hi Munin. i disagree. Throw Down (it's two words, btw) is almost pure cinema. it has nothing to do with To's "eccentricities" (i think you mean idiosyncracies?). it's just simply a great film and one of the best films ever made, in HK and anywhere else. i've had friends who are not Johnnie To fans who find Throw Down to be very unique.
i feel To at the moment is on an upward slope, and i believe in the next 5 to 10 years, he is going to surprise us even more. those of us who've followed his work long before Election and Cannes and western audiences' discovery of him, are so glad to see him finally getting the international recognition he truly deserves.
now, it's time for a proper boxed set!
"Director in Action: Johnnie To and the Hong Kong Action Film"
http://www.hkupress.org/asp/bookinfo.asp?PD_NUM=9789622098404
and it is written by the film scholar Stephen Teo (who is acquainted with David Bordwell i think). The book is very well written and it contains analysis of every crime movie (and more) of the milky way period.
It's not the grand recognization To truly deserves (that would need to go beyond academic literature), but as Teo himself states - To is still among the living, and for all we know, the best 15 years of his filmmaking life may still be ahead of him.
On that note, the included interview - like in that other book, "Milky Way: Beyond Imagination" - confirms that To pretty much ghost-directed The Odd One Dies, Expect The Unexpected & The Longest Nite - something which was always rumored but I was surprised by the frankness with which To speaks about it.
Either way, I personally think To has long surpassed both Woo and Tsui. Perhaps people will only truly realize the impact of his work when he's no longer making films.
Underrated? Everyone I'm in contact regarding HK film loves it. Actually I think I maybe only HK film/To fan that is not as enamored with the film.
I'm wondering what "literature director" means.
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